Eurocruise – Naples Part 1

23 – Eurocruise – Naples Part 1 Sunday, April 28 dawned clear, but before I could take advantage of the fine weather, there was a certain amount of housekeeping to take care of. It was about 20 minutes after 7 when I left Napoli Centrale, Trenitalia’s modern railway station, and wandered out, onto Plaza Garibaldi. The Eurodam was scheduled to arrive at the port at 8 o’clock and I knew a number 1 tram would take me right to the piers. So I bought a day pass from a machine at the car stop, which would be good on all of the transit and commuter rail lines in the city. That accomplished, I boarded the first car headed in the right direction for the short ride to the Universita stop. As it turned out that was one station short of the temporary terminal of the streetcar line, Via Cristiforo Columbo (who IS that guy), as most of its western end (10 more stops) was closed for major construction. The piers were brimming with cruise ships, with Norwegian, Costa and MSC all being represented. I asked about the Eurodam and was told it was not docking at this location, but I could walk or ride a pier bus to another terminal. I chose to walk, and tramped for the equivalent of about one and half tram stops, but found the area to be virtually deserted. What to do now? Figuring I misunderstood the directions I walked back, continuing to roll my carry-on. I found a police officer, and he told me the same thing about the Eurodam, but this time I rode the bus to the other pier location. I soon saw a young woman walking toward the water so I stopped her to ask, and found out that she was a port official. She spoke excellent English and confirmed the Eurodam was indeed arriving here, and told me it was her job to provide clearance for the docking and give the go-ahead to allow passengers on and off. She said she would be happy to take me with her, so I could board rapidly. Soon the Eurodam began to approach the dock, and I saw Clare high above on one of the decks waiting with her tour group to alight so they could board one of the buses that now were starting to congregate. I waved and she waved back. The cruise ship pulled in at 8:25 (late as usual) and after inserting my key/pass into a machine I was let aboard. I rolled my bag back to our cabin, took a shower, put on fresh clothes, and at about 9:10, was ready to disembark for my day of electric traction. Naples is a city of almost 1 million along Italy’s west coast. This was my third trip to this pleasantly disorganized hilly metropolis, which still has three lines left (http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/it/nap/tram/napoli-tram.htm) of what was once a large streetcar system. It also sports a bunch of incompatible rapid transit-like lines (http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/it/nap/napoli-map.htm). These are comprised of a modern heavy Metro line, a new wholly underground light Metro, a Trenitalia-operated S-bahn line, and three separate independent suburban railways, which include the standard-gauge Circumflegrea and Cumana railways and the 960-mm-gauge Circumvesuviana railway--plus three funiculars. While I was disappointed that I would not be able to ride the entire streetcar system again, especially through the Tunnel della Vittoria, I hadn’t come with big plans, as it was clear that a single Sunday would not suffice for covering the city’s robust mix of interesting lines. But then I had ridden and photographed most everything on previous trips – more than once for many of the operations. Unfortunately on my last journey all of the rapid transit lines, except for Metro route 1, had been severely doused with graffiti. But there had been a few new developments since then, which comprised my ‘to do’ list. Most important would be the new 100-percent low-floor cars on the streetcar system and an extension at the other end of tram line 1, which had opened only a month ago. Also I wanted to ride Metro route 6, a totally new underground line that uses new high-platform LRVs,. As it would turn out, I would have a few pleasant surprises, but would not accomplish all I had set out to do. The streetcar system consists of three lines, configured like an upside- down letter ‘T’. Route 1, the heaviest of the services, runs north to west; route 4 north to east; and route 2 west to east. The west to east portion of the system runs parallel to the Mediterranean, while the north-south section serves the railway station and connects with some of the rapid transit lines. Route 2 does not have much service, as it is duplicated by the other lines; it had been numbered 29 on my previous visits. Much of the system runs in the center of streets, separated from the ferocious motor traffic by raised curbs. Upon leaving the ship I walked to the Marina Duomo stop of lines 1 and 4, just outside the gates of the pier where the Eurodam was docked. My first order of business was to ride to the northern end of the 1, which had been extended four stops beyond its old loop at Emiciclo Poggioreale. It appeared that all service was being provided by new Sirio LRVs manufactured around 2004 by Ansaldo Breda. I found the double-ended 100-percent low-floor units to be virtually identical to cars I had ridden in Florence, Samsun, Kayseri and Athens. A map indicated that the old loop on the system’s northern end is still used to turn route 2 cars, and while continuing past it, I spied a green streetcar in the off-street terminal. I wondered what it was, as prior to the introduction of these new silver liveried articulated streamliners, Naples rolling stock had been painted in a traction orange livery. The four-stop extension turned out to be rather boring, with its new terminal at Via Stadera-Cuomo (don’t know if it’s named after Mario or Andrew) having been plunked down in the street’s central reservation, differing from the other stops only because of its tail track and crossovers. Clearly, like Newark, Pittsburgh and Boston, single-end cars are no longer an option for the Naples tramway. My plan was to go right back and get off at the old loop, to examine what I thought might have been a static display of a heritage car. However, just as we approached the stop, the single-ended unit began moving, coming out of the loop and entering the street right in front of us. Now the question was, how could I ride/photograph it. We stayed right behind my objective as we continued down Via Nuova Poggioreale and its continuation, Via Casanova, usually making a station stop just after the other car began to move away. Finally, a red traffic light stopped the old-timer within a station, so I hurried off the Breda unit, ran forward and banged on the green car’s front door. The operator opened it, and I was welcomed aboard what appeared to be a fan trip. The car was No. 1029, a 1935-built Peter Witt that was modernized with a new body around 1960, and then was restored as a historic unit in Napoli’s old color scheme during the past few years. It is a single-ender with doors at the front and rear, and despite being classified as a Peter Witt, I doubt it ever sported center doors. We operated over line 2, making stops on demand, with the occasional passenger boarding or alighting. A conductor was on board checking and selling tickets, and he accepted my day pass for payment. This led me to believe I was aboard a Sunday-only heritage car operation, perhaps something similar to the current PCC operation in San Diego and the now-defunct holiday Peter Witt service in San Jose and “Council Crest” car service in Portland. There were a number of camera-toting passengers aboard, and I eventually found one that spoke a tiny bit of English. After finding out I was from the New York area, he began to press buttons on his digital camera, and voila (or the equivalent Italian word), he showed me a few photos of Mike Glikin and the 2012 E. R. A. trip to Italy, which chartered the same car for an excursion! We did not make any photo stops, but when we arrived back at Emiciclo Poggioreale, we laid over, giving all the traction fans aboard a chance to take photos with their friends and countrymen (not Romans) hovering around the car. I was enjoying the sounds and ambience aboard the 80-year old unit and decided to ride a bit longer, but changed my mind when I saw an orange car pass us. So I got off at the next stop and spent some time photographing regular service until I saw the orange car coming back. I photographed it near a stop and then had to hurry to board it. Apparently the passengers were watching my antics and they applauded when I got the operator to open the door at the stop, which he planned to pass because he didn’t see me waiting.

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